Dhaka – The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Textile and Jute Ministry on Sunday recommended the government to place the Jute Bill 2016 in the parliament’s next session, scheduled to start from January 22.
The parliamentary watchdog came up with the recommendation at its 22nd meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with its chairman Saber Hossain Chowdhury in the chair.
In January 2016, the cabinet okayed the Jute Bill, 2016 with a provision of maximum three years’ imprisonment or maximum Taka 1 lakh fine or both for violations of the law.
The salient feature of the draft law is that it has 32 sections empowering the government on various issues like producing jute and jute goods, motivating farmers to produce jute, conducting research and issuing licenses for such purposes.
Besides, provisions are also there for empowering the government to appoint agents and brokers, fix prices, impose development fee and registration of contracts.
The parliamentary committee also suggested the government to go for an automated system for bringing transparency and dynamism in the jute activities and for making Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) a profitable organisation.
It also asked the government to prepare Powerpoint presentations on Bangladeshi textiles and jute products for the 136th conference of Inter-Parliamentary Union, to be held in Dhaka in March next.
Committee members Textile and Jute Minister Md Emaz Uddin Pramanik, state minister Mirza Azam and Dr Md Enamur Rahaman attended the meeting, said a Parliament Secretariat handout. -UNB
